Thomaston Apartment Building was Basil Day's Boat Shop

By Pat Hurley | Oct 18, 2013

After purchasing what was a working boat shop on Booker Street in Thomaston I frequently met former customers of boat builder Basil Day. Day was a Thomaston resident who I've been told was a original partner in Lyman Morse Boat Building. One of Andrew Wyeth's sons stopped by one day. As he told about days gone by, tears came to his eyes, for he had stored his boat in what was now an apartment. It was the same large space but now with ceramic tiled floors. I never had the pleasure to meet Basil Day but kept meeting former customers of his as we did renovations to the building. My favorite story was from an elderly gentleman who related a story, of when he had stopped by the shop. This man was fascinated by the sight he saw while looking around the shop full of boat carpenters. All were no younger than 80 years old. Basil, from what I understand, had a reputation for building laminated hollow masts. Some of the remnants of these masts were scattered around the shop when we moved in. Several very large sailing vessels were fitted with these masts and made their way out of St. George River. There is still a large shop/storage area for boats within the original building but now there are also four apartments recently renovated. Each have a marine type appearance that I think Basil would have approved.Over what was Basil's office is a Russian sub clock purchaced on Ebay.If anyone has any stories or knew Basil I'd appreciate hearing from you. Some photos at my web site www.hurleyroundhouse.com can be seen by clicking onto 'boat storage ' or 'apartments .